Labour's GST and conventional weapons

In 1919 the New Zealand Labour party won its first
general election, promising:" Increased taxation on
monopoly and increased graduated income tax with a
corresponding reduction of indirect taxation for the
purposes of removing the present burdens on family
incomes."

This echoed the Communist Manifesto's demand for
" a heavy progressive or graduated income tax", in both
cases a tilt at the rich in favour of the poor. This
was back when the New Zealand Labour Party was a new act
juggling two balls; socialist rhetoric and parliamentary
politics.

Karl Marx type taxing was never going to be
delivered by a party committed to respecting capitalism’s
political rules and so it proved to be.

But in 1919,
punters could be excused for taking Labour at its face
value.Labour had been in existence for only three years
and was in large measure a creation of working men and
women. There was then little reason to doubt Labour's bright
new pro worker promises.

Labour has now completed almost
one hundred years of reliable service to those exploiting
the working class.

In today's latest skip down that road
Labour leader David Cunliffe merrily tweeted:

Cunliffe's protection of the goods and services
tax is consistent, because GST was a Labour party creation.
Initially at 10 per cent, then later raised to 12.5 per
cent, GST hits the poorest hardest – because low paid
workers must spend a far higher proportion of their money on
basic goods and services than do the better-off.

On
the eve of GST's imposition, union economist Peter Harris
complained: "The GST collects a greater proportion of
the income of lower income earners as tax than it does of
the income of higher income groups....it is largely a way of
reforming sales taxes.

At present, sales taxes are
charged on what the government has decided are luxuries and
the more luxurious the item the higher the tax. Food
attracts no tax. Cameras attract about 40% . A large part of
GST merely lowers the tax on items such as perfume, jewelry,
cameras and binoculars and recovers the money that is lost
by taxing items such as food and other non-taxed items such
as food and other non taxed essential goods and services."
The Labour Government’s 1985 introduction GST was
part of a package of ‘new right’ reforms after Labour's
election victory in 1984. The new government inherited an
alarmingly high budget deficit and overseas debt, an
inflated dollar, and rocketing inflation. The economy was in
crisis, radical political adjustment of some description was
required.

In his pamphlet "Night's Black Agents, the
Labour Party since 1984" Jim Delahunty noted:"Labour
took on the task of saving capitalism here and so its scope
of action was limited to the capitalist possibilities...In
terms of parliamentary politics Labour had few alternatives
- and it chose the worst from the viewpoint of NZ working
people."

Jim continued:" It is so much easier to bash
the poor than bash the rich. The poor can't fight back with
conventional weapons. They have no legion of corporate
lawyers and crooked accountants to plead their cause. They
don't have the monopoly owned newspapers to make propaganda
from the day's events in their holy task of protecting
capital and those who own it at the expense of the poor."

"And if the people have no unions with the guts to fight
and are represented by a "party of the people" who have
deserted the people, then the way is clear for a free run of
capitalist market forces and the reign of Mammon in public
affairs."

At the time of writing this, there has been no
union protest against Cunliffe's recommitment to indirect
taxation of the working class.

That is not surprising.

Despite their party's anti worker record, Labour can
still count most union leaders as their loyal apologists.

To fight back and gain, the poor will need to forge some
unconventional
weapons.

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